MUMBAI: MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman joined lawmakers in unveiling the five countries on the 2007 priority watch list of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus (IAPC).

While China and Russia are on the high-priority list; Canada, Malaysia and Mexico are also on MPAA’s radar.

The Caucus, created in 2003 and led by Gordon Smith, Joseph Biden, Adam Schiff and Bob Goodlatte, is a bipartisan and bicameral group committed to protecting American intellectual property and reducing the scourge of piracy abroad.

Countries are identified for the watch list based on levels of piracy and the need for government intervention in lawmaking, enforcement and prosecution of intellectual property theft.

This year’s list focuses on China and Russia as high-priority countries and highlights recurring problems with Canada, Malaysia and Mexico, citing problems such as limited market access, high optical disc piracy, rampant street level piracy, unauthorized and prolific camcording of motion pictures in theaters, and lack of deterrent penalties as examples of reasons why piracy is so problematic in these countries.

US copyright industries – which contribute more than $800 billion annually to our nation’s GDP – continue to be plagued by the rampant theft of their product on a global scale. Piracy in those countries highlighted today by the IAPC is particularly problematic. Thievery, particularly in the form of illegally camcorded films, the production and distribution of optical discs and the expanding scourge of peer-to-peer file copying on the Internet, can devastate the creation and innovation of new works, and, in turn, the nation’s economic growth.

Glickman said, “I sincerely appreciate this Caucus for its work and recognition of the problems posed by global piracy. Their efforts are essential to motivating governments to take action and I look forward to our continued work together to promote copyright protection and the enforcement of intellectual property rights.”

Glickman welcomed the new resolution introduced by Congressmen Goodlatte and Schiff designed to reduce instances of copyright infringement on government computers by holding foreign governments accountable for usage policies within their networks.

The lawmakers use resources and statistics provided by the MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to pinpoint economies on the watch list.